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<br /> <br />Bou.lderDailyCamera:July 20,2006 -Page 14a <br />Circulalion:35,000daily 42,800 Sunday <br /> <br /> <br />ANNEXATION <br /> <br />Citizens deserve <br /> <br />to be consulted <br /> <br />W', hy we need voter approval <br />of annexations to Boulder: <br />Only the public can ;udgeif the <br />"benefit" of an annexation is more <br />or less than the damage done by <br />land 1illing agricultural land <br />previously providing passivefl(l.()r:1 <br />mitigation for hundreds of <br />surroundinghomes.A.grlcu1tural <br />land is taxed ata very low level in <br />recognition that the entire <br />community benefits from such <br />land. When the city annexes the <br />land and allows ;mQ <br />buJl I the previoun;. <br />miU& 11 benefit of the <br />agricultural land is lost. <br />How nice ifcity staff, City <br />Council members and appointed <br />board members represented <br />rather than ruled. But they do not. <br />So the people must protect <br />themselves. The downside of <br />annexation and landfill is that <br />landfill is an underground dam <br />t11at causes groundwater to back <br />up against the basements of <br />homes upstream and sidewise <br />from the landfill. The city sees <br />increased revenues. The costs are <br />borne by the public barmed when <br />basements are flooded more often <br />than they would have been, had <br />the nearby agricultural land been <br />kept as agrlculturalland or , <br />transferred to open space. <br />LOIS HAYES <br />Bqukkr <br /> <br />